Robert Newton, 60, from Grove, served as a driver with the Army and lost five friends to the troubles while serving in Northern Ireland in 1971.

He broke his back in service in 1975 and has been in a wheelchair ever since.

For the past 19 years he has sold poppies in Wantage and estimates he has raised £40,000 for the Poppy Appeal.

Last year, his father Arthur, 92, died while Robert was selling poppies. Robert said: “When the hospital rang to say Dad had passed, people said I should go home. But I knew he wouldn’t have wanted that. He would have wanted me to stay and sell poppies, so I did.”

He continued: “My dad was in the Army and served in Burma, where he won the Africa Star and Burma Star. The day before he died, he asked me to take him a poppy into hospital.

“When I went to see him he was at peace, wearing it.

“This year, as always, I will sell poppies from noon til night, but I will do it in my dad’s honour.

“He would have loved that.”